Canuck sikokianums

[Rand Nicholson]

>A tale of two treatments:
>
>In early December 1995 a friend gave me some nice cleaned seed of
>Arisaema sikokianum in a Zip-loc with some moistened sphagnum moss. I
>cheerfully accepted it because the one seedhead I had on my plants was
>still quite green and I was afraid it would never ripen at all.  It was
>a very hectic time of year so I just popped the bag into the fridge and
>promtly forgot about it as it became buried behind left over Christmas
>turkey and other food.
(Snip)
I carefully
>potted them up ( and mailed a few to a new Aroid-L friend in Canada; I
>hope they are doing well Rand!) and the grew fine under the lights as
>well.
>Are there any Arisaemas which must have cold treatment to germinated?
>Would dry stored seed be different? How long is dry stored seed viable?
>
>  |_____________
>|               \   Mike Slater
>|               /   Southeastern Pennsylvania, z6
>|            *  \   DVC of NARGS and AEG
>|_______________/

Hi Mike:

Of the 22 sprouted seedlings that you sent me, I now have _five_ second
year tubers potted up and living on my windowsill (-11 C, hard and white on
the other side of the window, as I write).

The primary attrition rate was due, possibly, to my inexperience (I'm a
newbie at growing Arisaema from seed) and rough handling of the already
sprouted seed, the ungentle treatment they may have received at their stage
of growth in the Canadian postal system and the fact that when they arrived
(Almost 10 days _after_ you mailed them, Mike. Once they arrive in Canada,
Canada Post straps them to the rack of a migrating moose, the preferred
form of regional postal transfer up here.), most of the sprouts were very
long, stringy and distinctly trying to form leaves in the bag! Planted,
they quickly went down by the twos and threes (Imagine my feelings of
chagrin as I checked them every hour.) Even the five survivors had damaged
leaflets the first time around and the seedlings were lanky, sickly looking
and weak at their best. The tubers that formed were proportionate in size
to the amount of leaf damage that had occurred and (the tubers were) on the
very small size, from weasel spit to 5 mm at the largest.

This cycle, they have all formed (or are forming: the last one is just
leafing out now. They have all sprouted over a period of the last three
weeks, in no particular order as regards tuber size) nice, thrifty little
plants, about 9 cm high and wide across the tops (the size of the tubers
did not seem to affect the size of the 2nd growth plant). Strangely enough,
they are all about a uniform size (and really cute!) and I hope to be able
to baby them into forming tubers I can actually pick up without needing
tweezers and a magnifying glass.

I think the lesson here is that the seedlings have a window, after they
sprout, when they can be most successfully planted without causing too much
damage to the fragile growth and, thus, affect the resultant tuber
formation.

Many Thanks, Mike, for giving me my first A. sikokianums; my first shot at
growing an Arisaema other than the ubiquitous (but quite lovely) A.
triphyllums that are native to this region of Canada.

Kind Regards,

Rand, In the Great White North


PS: All:

I _love_ this new list!